8th Grade Team Named National AdCap Challenge Finalists

Eighth grade students Aadi Patel, Jonathan Skatoff, and Andrew Moffitt are finalists in the national AdCap Challenge, a social entrepreneurship challenge sponsored by major industries including the National Dairy council and Land O’Lakes. Each company posted real-life questions for students to solve either by invention, raising awareness, and/or by meaningful community partnerships. The questions came in two broad themes: Hungry for Change and Technology with Purpose.

The team of three eighth grade finalists, led by Middle School Social Studies teacher Anne Franzen, tackled the question of how they could harness the power of technology to develop a solution specific to their own community issues.

The team came up with their big idea from watching people lose their homes in recent hurricanes. They voiced concern that people had trouble seeking shelter because they did not have a place for their apps. This inspired them to create an app for people to offer shelter from the storm, especially in second homes, to people that need pet-friendly accomodations.

“This is the first year of the competition and our involvement. The competition was advertised for business teachers and I was searching for more competitive opportunities for the Finance Club in the Spring,” said Upper School Social Studies teacher Dr. Hope Myers.

“While filling out the high school registration forms, I noticed that the competition was open to 8th grade as well. I contacted Anne Franzen to see if she had any 8th graders willing to participate even though they only had a few weeks to prepare. She told me two teams were keen, and we were off to the races. Altogether TBS had five teams entered into the competition,” said Myers.

Myers said the 8th Grade boys team has amazed her with their big ideas and clever solutions!

“I think Anne and I had to pick our jaws off the floor while watching the team answer questions in the semi-finalist interview,” said Myers.

The selection committee asked the students tough questions about the logistics and planning of their idea.

The team will now head to Newtown Square, Pennsylvania, for three days of competition against four other high school finalist teams. They have a chance to win a $5,000 scholarship for college in addition to $5,000 in seed-money for their idea.
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